Hi Paula. Our sparkling wines are actually fermented two times, once to produce a still wine (the base) and again to carbonate the wine, to make it bubbly. Our process is the more traditional Methode Champenoise which means that the second fermentation occurs in the bottle. It is thought that this process produces wines of the highest quality. Another way of putting the spark in the sparkling is to add carbon dioxide to a still wine in a tank and bottle it under pressure, the Charmat method. We harvest the grapes a little less ripe than we normally would since we are looking for higher acid and more subtle flavor. Less ripe also equals less sugar, which in turn means less alcohol, which is important since we will be adding more alcohol when we ferment the wine in the bottle to produce carbonation. After the base is fermented we will store it in either stainless steel containers or old French oak (neutral barrels) until we have worked up enough courage for the next step-...